ive been looking into getting a handhand pair. for person to person, back up on the boat and whatever else.

the problem is that i have no idea as to what the options are. ive read a bit but VHF, UHF, shortwave, ham, weather, morse code........ -------i must note that i am not looking for an explanation of these things, i will keep reading, but would like some advise on my option for a small, reliable, powerful handheld that could do as much as possible.

one i have looked at is, below, does anyone have any experience with these?

STOP... Before looking for a radio or radio service you need to define your communication needs. Without thatyour questions are meaningless.

How far do you need to talk, How often do you need to talk, Who do you need to talk to, A group or anyone on the air.Are you look to a SHTF radio or one to use day/day?

What other needs do you have. Powerful means nothing. Almost every hand held is going to be in the 1-5 watt power range. Your actual distance the radio will talk hand held to hand held will not greatly increase going from 1 watt to 5watts, so dont think a 5watt radio will talk 5 times further than a 1 watt radio. Distance will help to define and eliminate radio services. If you need 1/2 mile then there are lots of option, if you need 10 miles there there are almost none. Somewhere in the middle is where the hand held fits.

i doubt i would use it daily. more like hiking, sking. and yes shtf too.

i would mostly talk to my wife (with a paired unit) but if possible i would like to talk to others with different radios, groups. send morse code, maybe even a bat signal...not sure what my options are.

freqs, again i have no clue what the options are in this area either. unit to unit, vhf, uhf, etc. really i just have no idea.

hope this info helps narrow it down. i have some reseach to do, but im also looking forward to the guidance of you ugys who know better. -leave it to the experts.

Dude, as a lifelong ham, I am actually pointing you toward a good set of FRS radios. My family could stay in touch all over Heavenly ski area (Lake Tahoe) with no problem over a mongo ski area covering California and Nevada. There are lots of good ones available cheap.If you want to reach out I'd suggest getting your Technician class ham radio license. You'll have great local vhf/uhf connectivity and as the bands improve during the increased sunspot activity you will be able to talk world wide on the 10 meter band.Good luck and have fun.

sorry for my lack of knowledge on this...again im hoping some of you are patient enough to kick me along,

but, MURS is an actual frequency? i thought it was just company that sold this puxing radio which could communicate with any radio, as long as it could tune in to the same freq range.

this is what short description is given on the Puxing handheld,

"A great all-in-one radio for use on 2 meter ham radio and for listening to MURS, local public safety and NOAA weather. Can be used to transmit and receive on any frequency for which you are licensed in the VHF band. Because this radio is flexible enough to transmit on numerous frequencies, the buyer assumes all responsibility for proper operation and licensing."

i thought this might be a small (powerful...in the sense i was looking for "flexible") i was looking for. would this radio be a bad choice? im not looking to tune in and start chatting with everyone but in a true emergency i would want to reach whoever i could.

If the sales ad claims "Can be used to transmit and receive on any frequency for which you are licensed in the VHF band" then they are giving wrong information.

A radio must be FCC type accepted for the specific service it will be used in. You can't legally buy a 2m ham radio and modify it to transmit in the VHF marine band or MURS or anything else. Its a technical spec issue and radios must meet certain minimum specs.

A MURS radio is very specific with only 5 channels programmed with limited power and fairly narrow voice deviation on at least some of the channels. There are literally hundreds or more ham, commercial, police type radios that can easily be programmed to the MURS frequencies and will more than meet the technical specifications but they are not FCC type accepted for MURS service and cannot legally be used.

The Puxing radios may be type accepted for amateur and possibly some commercial services but not MURS. Amateur radio is a bit loose on type acceptance where you can design and build your own radio from scratch or import a single non type accepted radio for personal use or use mil surplus radios, etc. Amateur radio is a hobby and experimentation is encouraged where MURS, marine, business, etc is not.

I run a pair of TYT UVF1 radios. They are dual band, and Radio Guy is right, the radios have to be type certified to work on MURS. I use them for MURS and FRS. I just program them for low power to keep it more legal. I use them for keeping in touch with the family on FRS. I know it is not actually legal. I just can't see paying the extra for a standard FRS or GMRS radio. Good Luck.

Its harder to find MURS radio than FRS, but they are out there. Dakota Alert has a couple models.Midland has a couple models.One of the better is the Kenwood Tk2100 this is a commercial VHF radio, but was made just before the MURSrules required dedicated MURS radios.You can also use older commercial VHF radios, but only on 2 of the 5 MURS channels.